


Real Trouble

by iwtv



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: F/F, Piper can jump tall waterfalls in a single bound, Recreational Drug Use, a jungle and a waterfall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 06:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwtv/pseuds/iwtv
Summary: This is based on a fantastic little piece of info from Piper Kerman's memoir that I just had to turn into a fic. Pre-prison Vauseman.





	Real Trouble

The marijuana fills her lungs one last time and Piper passes it back to her. It tastes sweet and her lips are sticky. She inhales it and the scent of the vivid red and yellow wildflowers that grow around them in the clearing. They’re flowers she’d only ever seen inside a zoo enclosure or botanical garden.

Long nimble fingers reach over and pluck a flower from the ground, offering it to her.

“The lady fancies the red ones, I think,” said Alex from beside her.

Piper blinks.

“Shit, how long have I been staring?”

Alex laughs. It’s more of a deep chuckle when she laughs, but it sounds happy and Piper is still amazed that she’s the one who can make Alex laugh like that.

“It’s good shit, I know,” says Alex as she pinches out what’s left of the joint and discards it. She leans back on her elbows alongside Piper on their blanket.

“When you asked me to come to Bali, I figured I’d get to roam around an interesting, foreign city and shop a lot,” Piper muses. “I never imagined hiking through wild jungles with cascading waterfalls.”

The waterfall in question was just a few yards in front of them, plunging off a cliff. From this distance Piper loved the sound of it, like something alive and full of energy but peaceful at the same time.

Alex kisses the top of her bare, sun-soaked shoulder.

“Told you I’d surprise you.”

Piper grins at her.

“I concede that I’ve been surprised. You are full of those.”

“Fahri says we’ve got two more full days here before the goods arrive, so by all means, enjoy.”

Piper squirms a little at the mention of Alex’s business. She knows that’s the entire reason they’re here but she doesn’t want to dwell on it. Plus she’s too high to dwell on anything that serious at the moment anyway. She’d rather dwell on how sexy her girlfriend looks next to her, in her short black shorts and barefoot; small droplets of sweat beading between her breasts in the tropical sun. It’s actually growing a little too warm now. Humid, Piper realizes when she wipes a layer of perspiration from between her own cleavage.

“I wish this jungle came with a pool though,” she says.

Alex nods towards the waterfall and cliff.

“About thirty or so feet straight down. Help yourself,” she adds with a smirk.

Curious, Piper gets up—slowly, remembering she’s a bit stoned—and approaches the fall’s edge. Its boarders consist of some large, jagged boulders and two wide, flat-topped rocks that jut out from the cliff. Piper peers over it. Alex stands beside her.

“That desperate for a dip?” she goads.

“Oh come on. I mean, yes, that’s a good jump, but totally do-able.”

Alex’s eyebrows go up as one.

“Oh yea?”

Piper snorts.

“I mean _I’m_ not jumping.”

Alex shrugs.

“I didn’t think so,” she says with mock disappointment. Her lips are turned up just enough for a dimple to show and Piper has learned there is often an implicit challenge in that look. She starts peeling off her shirt and shorts, then unhooks her bra. Alex watches her dubiously, flicker of amusement in her eyes.

“Okay, sure,” she chuckles out.

Piper eyes her evenly as she steps out of her underwear.

“Why not?” she counters.

She watches Alex drink in her nude body with her eyes and it makes her shiver despite the heat. Alex’s mouth upturns a little more.

“Come on. You’re not gonna jump. You don’t have to.”

“I know that. I’m not trying to prove myself or anything,” Piper replies, feeling a little indignant that Alex would even think that of her…and also a little concerned that she does, in fact, feel that way. A little.

Alex wonders back to their blanket and beckons Piper to join her and to leave her clothes off, of course.

But Piper is still edging over to the cliff. She climbs up on the first of the two step-like flat boulders, then steps down to the second one. Her breath leaves her lungs in a sharp exhale.

“Holy shit,” she mutters.

The so-called thirty or so feet down looks remarkably more intimidating when she’s mere inches away from it. Nope.

She turns and attempts to step back up the rock, but the constant wetness from the falls has made it slimy. And the step back up is big. If she’s careless she could easily slip and fall, not to mention she’s naked.

Fear tightens around her throat.

“Alex…”

She’s not loud enough. The waterfall is practically in her ear and its roar is deafening. She looks around for another way up but there is none.

“Oh. Fuck.”

She has to jump.

She takes a few deep breaths and tells herself she can do this. She’d judged the height to be do-able and Alex hadn’t disagreed, right? Not that Alex was a fucking cliff-diving expert, but she was smart and that counted for something right? Piper had come to care very much about what Alex thought on any and every subject. She realizes this as she’s staring down the cliff and possibly her death below. The waterfall ends in a deep, dark blue pool. As long as she dives properly she should be fine.

She squeezes her eyes shut.

“Why are you such a dumbass?” she whispers out loud to herself.

She flexes her fingers and takes some more deep breaths, backing up against the rock. She can hear her heart beating wildly as she takes two running strides and leaps off the rock.

 

Alex is getting impatient on the blanket all alone.

“Piper, get your ass over here,” she yells out. No response. Is she still staring over the cliff?

Chuckling to herself, Alex climbs to her feet and walks the short length to the water’s edge. She makes it to the flat rocks where Piper had been last—and gasps.

There’s her insane girlfriend, falling through the air; a blur of apricot.

“Holy fucking _shit!_ ”

Fear seizes in her organs as Piper’s form hits the water and disappears under it. The white foam surrounds her entry and quickly disappears.

“Piper? Piper!”

Seconds pass. Piper re-emerges right-side up and looking intact. She pushes her hair back over her head and yells out a string of curses that sound—excited?

“Are you fucking crazy?” Alex yells down at her. She’s immensely relieved and laughing at the same time. Well.

Alex takes off her glasses and gingerly sets them on the grass, following by the rest of her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Piper yells up at her. “No. Alex, no! Take the trail down!”

Alex steps down onto the rock.

“Too late! Move!”

Piper swims away a bit. Alex steadies herself and sucks in a lungful of air. She jumps and falls…and keeps falling, feeling like her skin might fly off her bones as she picks up speed. And then she’s hitting the water, hands stretched out over her head. She dives underwater and doesn’t know how many damn feet she’s under before her body starts to slow and she can kick her way back to the surface.

Her mouth opens as she feels fresh air again, sucking in much needed oxygen. Piper is already swimming over to her.

“Oh my god!” the blonde exclaims as she reaches her, sapphire eyes wild.

Alex is still making sure her limbs are attached.

“I can’t believe I just did that.”

Piper lets out a peal of laughter.

“You are nuts, you know that?” she says as Piper throws her arms around her neck.

“I didn’t have much of a choice once I was on the rock,” says Piper, still laughing.

It’s an infectious sort of laugh that catches hold of Alex. She kisses Piper full on the lips. Their teeth clack together and they laugh again.

They make it to the shore and hike back up the path to collect their belongings but end up collapsing on the blanket immediately, still giddy.

“I don’t even think I’m stoned anymore,” says Piper.

“Oh I’m definitely still stoned, or that wouldn’t have happened,” counters Alex.

She stills and looks at Piper.

“Looks like I’m not the only one full of surprises.”

“It’s your fault,” Piper replies. “You make me crazy.”

Piper giggles at her own tease, but the moment seems to crystallize between them and her smile changes. Alex bends in and kisses her gently, hooking her chin with her fingers.

“I’m in real trouble with you,” she says softly.

The kiss doesn’t fade and Piper deepens it before pulling back, licking her lips.

“Mmm,” is all she says.

Piper makes her crazy too, but she doesn’t dare voice it out loud, not yet. She’d rather bask in its effects on her; soak in it and let the other woman permeate her whole body so that she sinks into her, like the Bali sun over them.


End file.
